Social media is a force to be reckoned with in today’s world. Celebrities and Influencers are raking in the cash just from having a significant following. Some industries seem to be made for each other, fitness and social media are two of those industries, fitness is the biggest niche on Instagram after all.
Businesses live and die on social media.
How to build a following:
Viral Content -
One route you can go down is creating content that blows up on social media. It’s not as difficult as it sounds, it may not happen the first try or without some effort, but it’s particularly difficult to see the kinds of posts that blow up.
There’s a mountain of content for you to look at to come up with ideas for content, generally it should be extraordinary or emotional.
The downside to this method is that the audience you bring in isn't necessarily going to convert to clients well. That’s not the end of the world though, more followers means you’ll reach more people and further compound your follower count. So, even if the traffic doesn’t make you money directly, it does help you reach potential clients.
Value Content -
A surefire way to get a following and growing client base, is to provide consistent, valuable, and educational content to the people you take on as clients.
If that were, for example, people in the 50-65 age range, then you should create content that will benefit them. This could be common postural distortions of people in this age range and some easy home-exercises they can do to help, or explanations about age specific metabolism, nutrition and fitness principles that they should keep in mind.
The value approach relies on using the expertise you use to coach clients and using it to inform on a broader scale and bring in clients.This approach is good for two reasons, it’s what you’re an expert at and it targets an audience that will convert better.
I think a combination of the two is best and makes for the best overall page.
You want a mix of valuable content that enriches people's lives, high quality photos that make what you do look desirable, and videos that are on par with what’s popular in the industry. Video content offers much higher engagement rates than photos, but photos make your page look better overall, so a balance is good.
Just make sure everything you post is high quality, in terms of production, picture quality, and the content itself!
When doing all of this, you always want to make it clear that you’re offering coaching. Don’t wait for people to ask you (this might work if you have 100k+ followers) or make them go looking. Make it clear what services you offer and don’t be afraid to sell yourself.
It would also be a good idea to offer an online aspect of your business, like online nutrition coaching or training plans, etc. Online meal plans are a viable source of income as most beginners and people in general lack the essential knowledge about diet and nutrition that they need to reach their goals.
I’ve written a more detailed post about what you can do with a nutrition certification here.
Depending on your business, you can also make use of influencers in your industry. Despite the controversy, Shredz is a great example here, they sell online coaching, meal plans, and supplements using a network of influencers with large followings. You have to carefully select the athletes you use to represent your brand, as their image will shape your image.
Gymshark has done this better than anyone, they have a huge network of athletes wearing their apparel and have created an extremely popular community within the fitness world.
These are obviously big companies, but they didn’t start that way. Through careful cultivation of their brand’s image, consistently providing high quality products and services, and using the immense power of social media, they grew into large scale businesses.
The content you produce and the platforms you choose to focus on will vary depending on your market, but there's a ton of inspiration out there for marketing your business on social media.
If you're a local PT that wants to find local clients, then you'll probably have the best luck in location relevant Facebook groups and social media networks.
I go into more detail about these topics and easy tricks to make them work for your business in my email group. Check it out at the bottom of the page, it's my free gift to you. You'll also get a copy of my free, 50-page personal training business book.